Clifton College Website

Modern Languages

The ability to understand and communicate in other languages is increasingly important in our society and in the global economy. Languages are a lifelong skill – to be used in business and for pleasure.

Head of Languages
Mr Llewelin Siddons MA
Heads of Departments
French:	Miss Caroline Bloor BA
German:	Mr Owen Lewis MA
Spanish:	Miss Michelle Harris BA
Mandarin:	Ms Emma Cordwell BA CELTA
Russian:	Mr Simon Heard BA

The aim of the Modern Languages Department at Clifton College is to develop the linguistic ability and cultural awareness of all our pupils irrespective of their country of origin.

The main languages offered are French, German, Spanish and Mandarin. Italian and Russian can be studied in the Sixth Form.

Teaching

When entering the Upper School in Year 9, almost all pupils study two modern languages. Many of our pupils come from Clifton College Preparatory School ('the Pre'), where they start French at an early age and then take two languages, chosen from French, German, Spanish and Mandarin, from Year 7. Most therefore continue with the two languages started in the Pre.

For other pupils and those entering from outside, there are beginners’ sets in German, Mandarin and Spanish from Year 9.

Pupils must normally take at least one modern language at GCSE. All the above languages can be taken to GCSE, AS Level and A2 Level.

The Sixth Form

Clifton has an excellent record in Languages A levels, with candidates sitting the AQA exams in most languages. For details of these courses, see the individual language pages. Alongside the main A level courses, Clifton offers complementary courses in Italian and Russian. This is an excellent opportunity to learn a new language from scratch and aim for a GCSE.

Exchanges

The department currently runs trips to give students a chance to practise their languages intensively and to experience life in the countries where their languages are spoken. Please see the pages for individual languages.

Events

The department also puts on a number of evening events for students, including the following recent events – not including events for specific languages:

• Language Festivals, to enable students of a particular year group to perform sketches in front of a small audience;
• A Languages Café to celebrate the languages and culture of all the different nationalities represented at Clifton;
• Modern Languages Film Club evenings.
• Debates in French, German and Spanish with other schools.

The first Clifton Languages Café, held on 2nd October 2006

The challenge was to learn 20 words in a new language. To celebrate the number of languages spoken by Cliftonians, 27 ‘Ambassadors’ from the Upper 6th to the 3rd form offered a taste of food and drink from their culture and taught all comers languages ranging from Cantonese to Welsh and Hindi to Russian. Learning a new language provides opportunities for making new contacts round the world.

Recent Modern Languages Successes

2011
Sophie Reece-Trapp, OC, is awarded a first class degree at Pembroke College, Cambridge.
James Heaven wins the first Nigel Jones Cup for public speaking in a Modern Language.
Isabel Murphy and Oliver Gittings score a maximum 300 marks in GCSE French and Spanish respectively.

2010
Freddie Kalfayan scores a maximum 360 marks in Spanish GCSE.

2009
Joshua Jacobs secures a place at St Hilda's College Oxford to read Modern Languages.
Sophie Brown, OC, is awarded one of the top firsts in Modern Languages at Oxford.
Sophie Reece-Trapp, OC, at Pembroke College, Cambridge is awarded a University Modern Languages Essay prize.

2008
Camille Ascoli wins a place at Exeter College Oxford to read Modern Languages.
Olivia Robinson wins a place at Clare College Cambridge to read Modern Languages.

2007
3 pupils are awarded one of the five top marks nationally in AQA GCSEs:

2006
Iona Turnbull wins a place at St Peter’s College Oxford to read German.
Emma Clutton-Brock wins a place at St John’s College Cambridge to read Spanish and Italian.
Sophie Reece-Trapp wins a place at Pembroke College, Cambridge to read German and Dutch.
Sophie Reece-Trapp has a translation published in ‘Translating is Creating’ published by UWE.

5 pupils are awarded one of the five top marks nationally in AQA GCSEs:

2005
James Robinson is awarded one of the five top marks nationally in AQA GCSE French.
Shin Seong-Ae is is awarded one of the five top marks nationally in Edexcel Japanese.

2004
Sophie Brown wins a place at Hughes Hall, Oxford to read French and German. In 2006 she was awarded an Exhibition by her college.

3 pupils are awarded one of the five top marks nationally in AQA GCSEs:

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